The Fish-Finger" is a semi-finless design I enjoy riding alot. They were born from the frustration that the thin timber alaia's caused me. The thin timber boards give a very different but enjoyable feeling when riding waves but they are near impossible to paddle due to their lack of floatation, so I set about making some high volume boards that were not only very easy to catch waves, but also designed to have better performance on the waves. I have never set out to make them remain totally finless and have found that a variety of very small fins and keels can still give you the free sildey feeling but also give you a little bit of hold and down the line projection. These are very fun boards and can make even the crappiest waves seem fun. For me, its all about getting that stoked feeling and having the right boards to do that. These are not for everyone but everyone should try one just to see if this unique way of riding waves is for you...Here are a few versions that I have done in the past.

Seriously tasty

This was my original Fish-Finger, I still have this board and ride it often. It is 6'0" x 21" x 2 3/4" , with this one, I just wanted to keep it simple and get alot of waves to learn as much as I could about riding finless. I had some plugs in so I could try some different little fins and cut off keels just to see how that went. I had a type of surfing I wanted to do which included alot of spins and drifts, basically a super loose slab of foam to make tiny waves MORE fun, and it sure does that...

Click the pic above to view the video.

Frankenstein Fish-Finger

As the name suggests, its a bit of a creation this one. This was an evolement from the first basic one and I was looking to create a board that went faster and also had a little more performance and hold as well as I wanted to be able to ride this one in a little punchier waves. It is possibly the fastest board I have ever ridden, 5'11" x 20 3/4" x 2 3/4". Flat deck, big deep double concaves, chine rails, big bat tail and again the plugs for tiny fin options....artwork done by my kids who were about 7 and 11 at the time, inmspired by the snow leopard fron Kung-Fun Panda, I just let them have free reign and they had alot of fun doing it...

The Slippery Eel

The Slippery Eel was shaped one day when I had a burst of creativity, I had a blank spare and I just felt like shaping something fresh and fun to ride. It was totally finless, has some incuts in the tail, 2 flute/channells,hull entry in nose, deep double concaves and chines as well. This one was very slippery and lively ( hence the name ). I took this one to a surfboard demo day that I had and people seemed to really enjoy this board. Pro Longboarder, Mitch Surman liked it that much he had to take it home with him, so he is now the owner and stills froths over it every time we chat. Dims are about 5'9" x 20 1/2" x 2 9/16"...

Recently been shaping a few of my semi-finless "Fish-Fingers". They are too alternative for most but when I get people to try them, they are usually fully stoked on the different feelings and the stoke you can get even in crappy waves. This one was a custom for Nev, a guy who has a few of my shapes now and he is open to riding just about anything as long as it is FUNctional. He gave me almost free reign on this one and the results are great. He loves it and I borrowed it ( just to make sure it went as we had planned ) and it is a blast. The long and low keels which are like training wheels for the newcomers to finless surfing are called "training keels", they can be reversed to give you different amounts of hold depending if you want to spin, slide and drift, or you need some hold and down the line projection...its almost like a super high volume alaia but better...this shape is always changing as I ride more and learn more....here's a few pics....,
MP